102 
EDITORIAL. 
Hog Cholera.— The Government at Washington, through the 
Department of Agriculture, has been for a number of years con¬ 
ducting a series of scientific investigations on the subject of this 
scourge of the swine family, which has ‘been for a long period 
and is still causing so much pecuniary loss in the various States 
where it prevails, and during this period various successive re¬ 
ports from Dr. E. Salmon, the official veterinarian of the Depart¬ 
ment, have recorded the progress which has been accomplished. 
These reports being, however, occasional and isolated, and only 
published at intervals, failed to present the results of his investi¬ 
gations in a consecutive and orderly form and it became difficult 
for those who were interested in the subject to form a clear con¬ 
ception of the work accomplished as a symmetrical whole. To 
remedy this difficulty, the Chief of the Bureau of Animal Indus¬ 
try has now collected and collated the several reports into book 
form, in a volume entitled “ Hog Cholera, Its History, Nature 
and Treatment,” and the student of the subject will be no longer 
obliged to search among fragmentary reports for the information 
of which he may be in quest. The most important of the results 
which have been reached may be thus summarized: 
1st. The disease is a contagious and infectious one, and may be contracted 
by a healthy hog from a diseased one, or from infected premises, and the conta¬ 
gion may be carried from farm to farm in various ways. 
2d. It is a bacterial disease, the germ having been first accurately figured 
and described in 1886, and studied almost constantly since that time. 
3d. The germ is readily cultivated in various media, is transmissible to other 
animals than hogs, from which it may be retransmitted to swine and produce a 
fatal form of the disease. 
4th. A fatal disease similar to hog cholera, which has been named “swine 
plague” to distinguish it from the disease first met with, was discovered during 
the progress of these investigations. It is also a germ disease, widely distributed 
and fatal, and may exist as a complication in outbreaks of hog cholera. 
5th. The disease may generally be prevented by isolation of the animals and 
by cleanliness combined with simple measures of disinfection. 
6th. Outbreaks of hog cholera are to be checked by separating the well from 
the diseased animals and practicing disinfection. 
7th. Infected premises may be made safe for the admission of a new herd by 
disinfecting with lime or other disinfectants, and allowing three to six months to 
elapse after the disease has disappeared. 
8th. Medicines have not been found to greatly influence the course of the 
disease. 
